sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh for his body, which is the Church ,"* and in another place, " I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation." [1] Christ our Lord tempered with no admixture of sweetness the bitter chalice of his passion; but permitted his human nature to feel as acutely, every species of torment, as if he were only man, and not, also, God.
The blessings and advantages which flow to the human race, from the passion of Christ, alone remain to be explained. In the first place, then, the passion of our Lord was our deliverance from sin; for, as St. John says: " He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood;" [2] " He hath quickened you together with him;" says the Apostle, " forgiving you all offences, blotting out the hand writing of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he hath taken away the same, fastening it to the cross." [3] He has rescued us from the tyranny If of the devil, for our Lord himself says; " Now is the judgment of the world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself." [4] He discharged the punishment due to our sins; and, as no sacrifice more grateful and acceptable could have been offered to God, he reconciled us to the Father, [5] appeased his wrath, and propitiated his justice. Finally, by atoning for our sins, he opened to us heaven, which was closed by the common sin of mankind, according to these words of the Apostle; " We have, therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the blood of Christ." [6]
Nor are we without a type and figure of this mystery in the old law; those who were prohibited to return into their native country, before the death of the high-priest, [7] typified, that, until the supreme and eternal High-Priest, Christ Jesus, had died, and by dying opened heaven to those who, purified by the sacraments, and gifted with faith, hope, and charity, become partakers of his passion; no one, however just may have been his life, could gain admission into his celestial country.
The pastor will teach that all these inestimable and divine blessings flow to us from the passion of Christ; first, because the satisfaction which Jesus Christ has, in an admirable manner, made to his Eternal Father for our sins, is full and complete; and the price which he paid for our ransom not only equals but far exceeds the debts contracted by us. Again, the sacrifice was most acceptable to God, for when offered by his Son on the altar of the cross, it entirely appeased his wrath and indignation. This the Apostle teaches, when he says: " Christ loved us, and delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. "[8] Of the redemption which he purchased the prince of the Apostles says: " You were not re-
